Sony to honour true heroes with bravery awards

CID, the longest running TV show in Indian history, has now entered its 15th year. That calls for celebrations, doesn’t it? Sony and the CID team have formulated a year-long campaign to celebrate the show’s successful run with the slogan 15 Saal se… Soch ke aage, jurm ke peeche (For the past 15 years… Ahead of the times, pursuing crime). The campaign will kickstart with the launch of the new CID anthem. Having heard the anthem we must say, it has been superbly composed and gives a good feel of the show and what is being conveyed. From March 16, 2012, Sony will air the Veerta series – episodes dedicated to the common man’s acts of bravery. Then there is the CID Veerta Awards (formerly known as the CID Gallantry Awards) that will award courageous individuals in two categories: Physical bravery (when you save someone’s life) and Social bravery (when you battle social evils).

This year, the team has already received 24,000 entries and have vetted all of them before shortlisting the finalists. The jury members, especially chosen for their lack of bias, are Asha Parekh, Farooque Sheikh, BP Singh (creator of CID and the CID Veerta Awards), YK Sapru (Founder-Chairman, Cancer Patient’s Aid Association) and Sumit Awasthi (Deputy Editor, Aaj Tak). Asha said it was “an honour” to be chosen as a jury member and she had no hesitation in accepting the offer.

BP Singh said that when the awards were launched three years ago, it was not planned as a commercial initiative. “There was no intention of commercial gain. The purpose was to recognise those brave people who are otherwise not heard about,” he insisted. Sneha Rajani, EVP and Business Head, Sony Entertainment Television, too said, “The awards are to honour brave acts by ordinary people.” We applaud the intention and hope they are able to stay true to it.